Founder Thomas W. Sherrin | Website sherrin.com.au | |
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Founded 1880; 137 years ago (1880) in Wellington, Australia(as "T.W. Sherrin Pty Ltd") Products Australian rules footballs |
Sherrin is a brand of football used in Australian rules football and is the official ball of the Australian Football League, designed to its official specifications. It was the first ball designed specifically for the sport.
Contents
- History
- Specifications
- Sizes models and colours
- The meaning of Kangaroo Brand
- Endorsements
- Awards
- Illegal Child labour stitching footballs
- References
Sherrin footballs are manufactured by Spalding, owned by Russell Corporation, in Melbourne, Australia from cow hide lined and machine-stitched, but other sized models are often made in India or China, using synthetic rubber.
History
The first Australian rules football was invented by Thomas William Sherrin in 1880, when he was given a misshapen rugby ball to fix. He designed the Sherrin with indented rather than pointy ends to give the ball a better bounce. The sport known as football, or "footy", was rapidly increasing in popularity, and Sherrin footballs soon became the icon for being the first ball made for Australian rules football.
Sherrin began production in 1897 in a workshop in Collingwood, which had produced a variety of leather sporting goods since 1880, including footballs, cricket balls, boxing gloves and punching balls. The quality of Sherrin's goods was widely regarded.
Specifications
FULL SIZE BALL (SIZE 5)
Sizes, models and colours
Models of the Sherrin football include:
The meaning of "Kangaroo Brand"
The term "Kangaroo Brand" ("KB") refers to a type of Sherrin football. When T.W. Sherrin started manufacturing footballs, several models were produced (such as the "MATCH III" Sherrin), but the "Kangaroo Brand" was Sherrins best-selling, highest-quality, and most favoured and traditional football.
Endorsements
Sherrin is the official brand of football used by the Australian Football League, which has been the case since the 1880s.
At the state level, Sherrin is used in the Victorian Football League and North East Australian Football League (based in NSW/ACT and Queensland). The other major brand of football is Burley-Sekem, which used at state level in the South Australian National Football League and West Australian Football League.
Awards
Illegal Child labour stitching footballs
A 12-month-long investigation by The Saturday Age, a Melbourne newspaper, has suggested that "Two of Australia's best-known football brands, Sherrin and Canterbury, have operations in India that use banned child labour." The kids were paid 7 rupees (A$0.12) per ball and it took 1 hour to make 1 AFL ball. $1/day to stitch footballs. This claim is in direct contradiction to the company website that claims the balls are made in Scoresby.
A follow-up investigation by Fairfax Media in September 2013 revealed that another brand of rugby balls was being stitched using illegal child labour in Jalandhar, Punjab for sale in Australia.